June 5, 2018, Watertown (SD) Public Opinion: Extraordinary Cost Fund for Special Education Interim Study Committee slated to meet June 13 https://www.thepublicopinion.com/news/local_news/extraordinary-cost-fund-for-special-education-interim-study-committee-slated/article_97ffcaac-68bc-11e8-9d1b-3bbf20094839.html PIERRE — The Extraordinary Cost Fund for Special Education Interim Study Committee will meet for the first time on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, in Room 362 of the State Capitol in Pierre. The committee’s assigned task is to examine the increased need for special education and related services in the schools in the state and how to adequately fund special education in light of the increased need. At the first meeting, staff members of the SD Department of Education will provide the committee with an overview of special education and special education funding. Committee members will also hear from school district representatives on the special education issues they face, and from Michael Houdyshell from the SD Department of Revenue who will explain the role of property taxes in the funding of special education. The meeting is open to the public, and public testimony will be taken in the afternoon.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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